Florida man convicted in distributing adulterated HIV medications worth $16M

Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A Florida man was convicted Thursday for his role in a nationwide scheme to illegally distribute $16.7 million of adulterated HIV drugs.

Armando Herrera, 43, of Miami and his co-conspirators established companies in Florida, Texas, Washington and California that sold and distributed adulterated HIV medication and other prescription drugs to wholesale pharmaceutical companies, according to a court statement.

Herrera pleaded guilty on Sept 25. He faces four years and three months in prison for his role.

According to court documents, the team of co-conspirators created false documentation to make the drugs appear as though they were acquired legitimately when they were not. Herrera and others were accused of adulterating and mislabeling more than 16,000 tablets of HIV medication Truvada, 3,600 tablets of HIV medication Biktarvy and 7,340 tablets of "other adulterated and misbranded diverted drugs."

Pharmaceutical suppliers then sold the adulterated drugs to pharmacies, which dispensed the drugs to unsuspecting patients.

Federal agents seized more than $1.5 million worth of adulterated prescription drugs from Herrera, according to court documents.

Herrera was among 14 defendants charged in June with over $1.9 billion health care fraud as part of the Justice Department's 2023 National Health Care Fraud Enforcement Action.